TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between childhood aerobic fitness and brain functional connectivity
AU - Kamijo, Keita
AU - Takeda, Yuji
AU - Takai, Yohei
AU - Haramura, Miki
PY - 2016/10/6
Y1 - 2016/10/6
N2 - Several studies have indicated that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness is associated with superior cognitive function, and this association is disproportionately observed in tasks requiring greater top-down control. We designed the current study to clarify the relationship between childhood fitness and top-down control in terms of functional connectivity among brain regions, by evaluating phase-locking values (PLVs), which is a measure of frequency-specific phase synchrony between electroencephalographic signals during a visual search task. Lower-fit and higher-fit children performed a visual search task that included feature search and conjunction search conditions. The conjunction search condition required greater top-down control to reduce interference from task-irrelevant distractors that shared a basic feature with the target. Results indicated that higher-fit children exhibited higher response accuracy relative to lower-fit children across search conditions. The results of PLVs showed that higher-fit children had greater functional connectivity for the conjunction relative to the feature search condition, whereas lower-fit children showed no difference in functional connectivity between search conditions. Furthermore, PLVs showed different time courses between groups; that is, higher-fit children sustained upregulation of top-down control throughout the task period, whereas lower-fit children transiently upregulated top-down control after stimulus onset and could not sustain the upregulation. These findings suggest that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness is related to brain functional connectivity involved in the sustained upregulation of top-down control.
AB - Several studies have indicated that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness is associated with superior cognitive function, and this association is disproportionately observed in tasks requiring greater top-down control. We designed the current study to clarify the relationship between childhood fitness and top-down control in terms of functional connectivity among brain regions, by evaluating phase-locking values (PLVs), which is a measure of frequency-specific phase synchrony between electroencephalographic signals during a visual search task. Lower-fit and higher-fit children performed a visual search task that included feature search and conjunction search conditions. The conjunction search condition required greater top-down control to reduce interference from task-irrelevant distractors that shared a basic feature with the target. Results indicated that higher-fit children exhibited higher response accuracy relative to lower-fit children across search conditions. The results of PLVs showed that higher-fit children had greater functional connectivity for the conjunction relative to the feature search condition, whereas lower-fit children showed no difference in functional connectivity between search conditions. Furthermore, PLVs showed different time courses between groups; that is, higher-fit children sustained upregulation of top-down control throughout the task period, whereas lower-fit children transiently upregulated top-down control after stimulus onset and could not sustain the upregulation. These findings suggest that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness is related to brain functional connectivity involved in the sustained upregulation of top-down control.
KW - Aerobic fitness
KW - Children
KW - Cognitive function
KW - Phase-locking values
KW - Top-down control
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984852157&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84984852157&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neulet.2016.08.051
DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2016.08.051
M3 - Article
C2 - 27585750
AN - SCOPUS:84984852157
VL - 632
SP - 119
EP - 123
JO - Neuroscience Letters
JF - Neuroscience Letters
SN - 0304-3940
ER -